Silas Webster Robbins was the son of Jacob and Eunice (Webster) Robbins. After his admission to the bar, he moved to Winchester, KY. His first wife, who died in 1836, was the youngest daughter of the Hon. Uriah Tracy, who also attended the Litchfield Law School. Three of the Robbins' daughters attended the Litchfield Female Academy.

Due to his wife's death and because he felt there was a great hostility in Kentucky towards Northerners, Robbins left the state in 1838. He then settled in Springfield, IL, where he had a highly lucrative practice and became one of the leaders of the bar. Robbins was active in politics and benevolent movements and was also a member of the 2nd Presbyterian Church. He retired from legal practice in 1855 and then moved to a farm four miles northwest of Springfield in 1858. He later died there at the age of eighty-six.

The Citation of Attendance provides primary source documentation of the student’s attendance at the Litchfield Female Academy and/or the Litchfield Law School. If a citation is absent, the student is thought to have attended but currently lacks primary source confirmation.

Records for the schools were sporadic, especially in the formative years of both institutions. If instructors kept comprehensive records for the Litchfield Female Academy or the Litchfield Law School, they do not survive. Researchers and staff have identified students through letters, diaries, family histories and genealogies, and town histories as well as catalogues of students printed in various years. Art and needlework have provided further identification of Female Academy Students, and Litchfield County Bar records document a number of Law School students. The history of both schools and the identification of the students who attended them owe credit to the early 20th century research and documentation efforts of Emily Noyes Vanderpoel and Samuel Fisher, and the late 20th century research and documentation efforts of Lynne Templeton Brickley and the Litchfield Historical Society staff.

Catalogue of the Litchfield Law School (Hartford, CT: Press of Case, Tiffany, and Company, 1849), 7.

Secondary Sources:

Webster, William Holcomb and Rev. Melville Rueben Webster. History and Genealogy of the Gov. John Webster Family of Connecticut. Rochester, NY: E.R. Andrews Printing Co., 1915.

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